


Calculus

by lazycookies



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Studying, idek what to tag this as, is it fluff??, there's yelling and stuff but it's pretty much fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-25
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-16 22:28:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1364020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazycookies/pseuds/lazycookies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nitori's last temper tantrum was around the age of seven— until the night before the hardest math test of the year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calculus

If you had stood outside the Samezuka Academy dormitories on Tuesday night at 11:53PM, you would have heard a faint wailing from a room on the second floor. You would have watched a book hit the window and then heard a low-pitched yell follow. You would have witnessed what came to be known as Nitori Aiichirou’s Calculus Meltdown.

Let it be made clear that Nitori is not a low-performing student. He excels at music, Japanese, and biology. He isn’t half bad at English either, thanks to his roommate. But Nitori Aiichirou is an absolute wreck when it comes to calculus.

He passed Geometry without much trouble. He worked hard for his B+ in Algebra. Precalculus was somewhat of a nightmare, but he scraped by with the lowest possible grade for a B. But Calculus is, in essence, the final boss he must beat before he moves on to Statistics and tries to forget that he ever took a math class before it.

It’s not surprising he cracked the night before the hardest test of the year.

Nitori had his head in his hands as he stared blankly at the notes in front of him. Variables and numbers were blurring in front of his eyes as he tried vainly to decipher them. He could hear the muffled sound of rap music from Rin’s headphones as his senior laid on the bottom bunk with a book. He vaguely decided he hated rap right now, but he didn’t dare tell Rin to turn it off. The ticking of the clock suddenly seemed very loud and very annoying.

Nitori ground his teeth. His throat was dry. He should go to the vending machine and get a drink—but studying is really more important. Maybe he had a drink in his backpack? He dug through it, and recoiled with a yelp when he cut himself on the corner of a binder. He nursed his wound with his mouth as his annoyance built up further. He reached for the box of bandaids on the shelf and, in the process, knocked a cup of pens to the floor. The clatter was loud enough for Rin to pop out an earphone. Nitori’s fists were clenched in his lap as he sat still, staring at the mess of pens. Why was he so angry over something so trivial? Why couldn’t he find it in him to pick them up?

“You better not be expecting me to clean those up, idiot. Pick up the damn pens already.”

Rin was a little sleepy, and so was unable to read Nitori’s body language when the younger bristled at the comment. He did notice, however, when Nitori slowly turned around in his chair with an unreadable expression and spat out, “Make me.”

Rin cocked an eyebrow. “What the fuck, Nitori. Don’t be an asshole.”

Something inside of Nitori collapsed, and Rin watched it happen right in front of him. The small boy shakily stood up before hurling his notebook at the window with a frustrated scream. Rin jumped when it hit the glass and fell to the floor.

“Nitori, what the FUCK.”

“Shut up!” Nitori shrieked, as he reached for his planner and threw it at the wall.

“Nitori, holy shit—“

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” Nitori wailed as he knocked his books to the floor.

“Ni—“

“Shut the FUCK UP,” Nitori yelled just before he tripped over his backpack and ended up sprawled on the floor.

Rin sat in stunned silence. Nitori had never cursed at him before—had never cursed in front of him at all, actually. He watched Nitori’s anger dissolve into tears as the boy started sobbing, his arm over his face as he laid on the floor and cried out all of the frustration inside him.

Rin moved from the bunk and knelt by Nitori, who didn’t protest when Rin lifted him up and carried him to the bed. Rin watched him curl up and continue crying. It made his heart hurt. He tested a quiet “Nitori?” and waited for a reaction that didn’t come.

“Nitori, are you okay?” Rin tried again, placing a hand on Nitori’s shaking shoulder. He didn’t flinch away, so Rin pulled him upright and into his arms. “Hey, it’s okay. Calm down,” Rin said as he rested his chin on the top of Nitori’s head.

“I’m sorr—I’m sorry,” Nitori hiccupped between sobs. “I’m just so—so tired.” He held onto Rin’s shirt to keep himself grounded, his fingers clutching tightly to the soft cotton. Rin let Nitori wet his t-shirt with tears as he rubbed gentle circles into his back.

“It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Fifteen minutes later, Rin left Nitori flopped over on the bed in favor of getting some water to rehydrate him. He came back to the room to find Nitori hunched over his desk, still sniffing, with all of his books and pens back in order.

Rin tossed him the bottle of water before pulling up a chair next to him. “Okay. Let me see what the hell was giving you so much trouble.” Ignoring Nitori’s protests of “I troubled you enough already!” and “I can manage on my own!” Rin skimmed over the notes.

“Yeah, this unit fucking sucked, but I got it. Let’s start with a practice problem. God, stop blubbering and do number seven on this page.”

The clock read 2AM when Rin and Nitori finally went to bed. Too exhausted to climb to his bunk, Nitori slept curled next to Rin, who had tucked him under the covers before crawling in himself. Nitori was out within seconds, drained from his breakdown and the intense studying that followed. Rin was still awake though, his eyes roving over the soft curves of Nitori’s face and the long lashes that fluttered as he dreamt. Rin kissed his nose, then his forehead. Nitori unconsciously pressed himself closer, slinging an arm over Rin’s waist. Rin couldn’t help but think of a koala as Nitori hitched his leg over Rin’s hip as well. He left the softest of kisses on Nitori’s slightly parted mouth before drifting off to sleep.

Nitori left nervous the next morning, and returned relieved that afternoon. They went out for ice cream as a celebration, and watched a movie on Rin’s computer when they got back to the dorm. When Nitori got his test back the next day with B+, he nearly cried.

“It’s thanks to you, senpai!” Nitori beamed as he proudly presented the paper to Rin that evening. “What can I do to pay you back?”

Rin thought about it. “Give me a kiss for every point you scored.”

Nitori turned red. “But—I got an 88.”

Rin grinned, then puckered his lips at Nitori. “You better get started, then.”

Rin felt very much compensated when the two of them fell asleep at 2AM for the second time that week.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a long time since I've written anything, but nitorin gets me really inspired. I'm definitely rusty, so I really appreciate all feedback and criticism!


End file.
